Friday, June 16, 2006

The Internet Is For Viral Videos

Warning: Links on this page may my unsuitable for work or in the presence of someone without a sense of humor.

When going to Broadway shows, one of our dilemmas is always whether or not to bring our son to a show. At first, the issue was content. We would only see mature shows like Cabaret when he was at camp or visiting his grandparents. The turning point was when he was fourteen and I wanted to see Avenue Q, which I knew was a little risqué. Avenue Q is an R-rated parody of Sesame Street where young adult puppets deal with the problems of real life including unrequited love, casual sex, latent racism, closeted homosexuality and the soul-sucking horror of starting a career.

We were prepared for a little inappropriate material, but the depth of depravity exhibited by these carpet remnants stunned even us. My wife said that if she knew the puppets had such graphic sex, she might have thought twice about bringing our son. I mean these puppets do things I have never done. My son laughed through the whole show and I was not about to ask what he did or did not get.

After that we never worried about content, just interest. As he gets older we feel safer leaving him at the hotel for a few hours while we see a show that would just bore him to tears. It’s cruel to inflict Little Women or The Woman in White on a male teenager. It’s bad enough he nearly got bitch slapped by one of the more flamboyant drama students at his school when my son let slip he had seen Wicked with the original cast.

A while back, fellow Achenblog Boodler, bc, had on his blog a link to a video where somebody had synched characters from World of Warcraft to a song from Avenue Q called “The Internet is for Porn”. In this ditty, Trekkie Monster educates poor naïve Kate Monster on what people really do with their computers. I showed the video to my son since he is a big Warcraft player and he thought it was a hoot.

Then last week, Sarcasmo had on her blog a link to the same song, but sung by X-Men characters, particularly Wolverine and Storm. This was just amazing.

I got curious about what other versions were out there. There’s a journalism joke that it takes three examples to declare a trend. After a little GoogleSearching®, its clear that mashing up videos to Avenue Q songs, and “The internet Is For Porn” in particular, is clearly a trend. YouTube has three pages of different versions. Some are just people in their house lip-syncing to the song, some others are home-made animation, but anime mash-ups are most popular. The Naruto version (a show my son watches) is particularly good. If you want to see the original, this video is a bootleg taping of an actual performance. And I have to warn you not to watch all the links at one sitting. The tune cootie could be fatal.

There is something deliciously geeky and wicked in taking clips to dorkfest musicals and editing them to a song as delightfully twisted as “The Internet Is For Porn.” Afterall, that is what the internet is for.

I have never seen Avenue Q, but after it won the Tony's that it did it certainly seemed like the Litle Engine That Could...I love a good spunky story like that...young people neverr on Broadway before Win Tony'S! Hooray. This is a very funny song and I'm afraid I don't get the xxx Men images that go with it unless someone considers that porn, too...Never seen any of those films...I am not sure I could watch too many of those videos, but I dearly appreciate you having this one on your blog!Your son sounds like a wonderful young man and I'm glad you take him to all sorts of shows on Broadway! This is a wonderful thing to do!